


Teeming

by whiteraven1606



Series: Three [12]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Culture Shock, Dehumanization, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Force Visions, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness, Recovery, Stormtrooper Culture, Stormtrooper Rebellion, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 15:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6200344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe wasn't up to admitting it yet, but he was collecting people from the First Order. He just wasn't sure if his latest find was going to help them or kill them all in their sleep. For her part, Captain Phasma was simply amazed the Resistance was still standing. She knew the blame for that lay with the Princess General.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teeming

****

Luke forced himself to breath evenly as he took the holoprojector back from Captain Phasma as she told them she hadn't found anything on the Nightsisters in the First Order's databanks. "They were a group of Force users from the days before the Empire. None survive that I know of."

"Last."

Luke took a steadying breath as everyone turned to look at Satine.

"Keep save."

He blinked as Phasma's astonishment battered against his awareness.

She frowned as she looked down at Satine. "Really? The flyboy?"

Kaleine glared up at Phasma. "Commander Poe!"

Luke cocked his head as Satine grinned up at them.

"Keeper of the Tree." Satine looked right at him as she spoke.

Phasma froze and Luke was fairly certain if she were any less battle hardened she'd have fainted.

She dropped to kneel in front of Satine. "Names?"

Luke exchanged glances with Finn.

Satine grinned at Phasma as she turned the helmet in her hands over. "Names."

As Phasma started to shake, Luke knew she was too stunned to be attempting to trick them. He could feel her through the Force more with each passing moment.

She reached out towards Satine with trembling hands. "Siding with the Resistance is a death sentence."

Satine smiled wide and looked past Phasma to include them all as she said, "Names."

Luke gave a nod as Poe shrugged when Phasma glanced at them.

Poe shifted his weight. "She seems to like the one I gave her."

Luke almost grinned at the flare of anger from Phasma.

"Like _you_ know her proper name."

Korro knelt down next to Phasma and Satine. "Her name is Satine."

Luke turned his head slightly to check Rey and Jessika as Finn grinned down at the back of Korro's head.

"Boost."

Luke frowned as he turned back towards Satine. That had sounded like it was a compulsion for her to say her Trooper name.

Phasma shook harder and Luke could feel her apprehension as she cupped Satine's shoulders. "Keep save?"

Luke kept one eye on TA-175's position as he tried to decide just how important Satine's phrasing really was since Phasma was seeming to find more meaning in it than the words being spoken.

"Good."

Phasma nodded. She looked up at him. "I need to press on her head and back. On my Troopers' lives I'm not going to hurt her. Understand me, Jedi Prince?"

Luke couldn't stop the little jerk at being called that nickname, but he nodded at her. Without the helmet muting her connection with the Force he could tell just how much the pain she felt about the Troopers she'd lost needlessly underlay all of her thoughts. It reminded Luke of his first Master's pain. "Since you took the helmet off and I can read you now, yes, Phasma, I understand."

He could feel a difference in the Force as Phasma slid her fingers along Satine's scalp and down the back of her neck. It felt vaguely like the few times Mara had massaged his right arm when the prosthetic had started to ache.

Satine sighed and flopped over sideways as the Force smoothed out around her like a pond becoming still. She fiddled with Phasma's helmet as the rest of them stood watching.

Kaleine leaned against Poe's side and looked at him and Poe. "What's she doing?"

Luke kept his expression neutral as Phasma smiled up at Kaleine.

"You asked for an Encryption Trooper, didn't you? Since Korro is alive you now have a full set. I still don't see her logic in making FN-2187 a Roll Trooper. I kept telling her Patches would be better, but she kept insisting Korro's Patches, Finn is Roll, and none of the rest of his squad were taught."

Korro frowned down at Phasma from where he'd stood back up. "You know my new name?"

Luke watched Phasma's movements carefully as she worked her way down Satine's back.

"She changed the Roll. None of the Code Sixes will authenticate anything. There's rumour of a ship with officers locked out of their quarters. The _FInalizer_ can't get the navigation computer unlocked because it rolled its code after the change."

Luke mentally snorted. If the First Order was producing everything's codes from the Code Sixes they were far more crippled with the change in the Repeating Roll than Leia's Signal Officer had thought.

Poe looked at him with a questioning expression.

Luke gave him a small nod to let him know he didn't think she was trying to lie to them.

Poe looked back down at Phasma. "Last I knew we only had one Patch Trooper."

"The Troopers with me. The three Patch Troopers that make a full set with Korro, one Repair Trooper, and two Node Troopers."

Luke forced himself to keep his breathing measured as Phasma's determination solidified and she made her decision that they were her path to protecting as many of her Stormtroopers as possible.

Phasma sat back on her hunches. "Satine?"

Satine sat up and shook herself all over.

Luke blinked hard as a wave of Force power flowed out from Satine as she ran her scarred hands down over her own arms. 

"Oh, that's much better." She smiled at Phasma. "Thank you, Sister." She reached into Phasma's helmet in a flash and flicked a switch as Phasma and Finn both lunged for her.

"No!"

Luke started forward, but stopped as TA-175 shifted to keep between them and the tangle of Satine, Phasma, and Finn on the floor.

"I'm fine, Phasma. Calm down."

He thought that was probably debatable.

"You hit the kill switch, what were you thinking..." Phasma frowned as she sat up. "Why didn't the needle strike?" She pulled her helmet from Satine's hands and peered down into it. "Is it malfunctioning?"

"No, it's working as intended. Snoke can remotely trigger the kill switches and I wasn't about to lose you that way." Satine gave Luke a sweet smile as she stood up and brushed herself off.

He mentally frowned and tried to find what the switch did in the helmet, but pulled back as he hit the feeling that he now recognized as Satine's Force defenses.

"TA-175, you can stand down if Commander Poe says so. No one is going to injure Phasma." Satine finished brushing herself off and straightened up.

TA-175 turned its optics towards Poe.

Poe made motions to stand down with his hands. "Stand down." He looked at Satine. "What does the switch do if it doesn't kill her?"

Satine shrugged. "I can't remember when I'm unencrypted. That's the whole point of it."

Luke blinked because it felt like she was both lying and telling the truth at the _same time_. He decided the best course of action at the moment would be to try to figure out if she was locked away from her Signal Corps knowledge. "You locked your Code Six knowledge away so you can be tourtured, but can't give up what you can't remember."

She nodded. "Exactly. I can still knock you on your ass if you Force push me. I don't need the wires for it, they just defend where I'm not."

He didn't doubt her as he was still a little sore from the other day. Luke gave her a nod as Poe cocked his head.

"You remember what happens while you're encrypted?"

Satine smiled and held Phasma's helmet out to her. "Yes, I just can't tell you a single communications thing right now. You were very nice to show me the food pouch wasn't poisoned. Thank you for that."

Luke had to bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling as Poe looked like he wanted to duck his head. 

"Oh, ah. You don't really need to thank me for that."

Satine yawned. "Trust me that I do." She ran a hand down Phasma's arm. "Captain Romi's Code Six works fine so you're listed as dead now, Sister. I killed you on the List before coming after Kaleine."

Luke wanted to groan. Maybe he could convince Satine not to just _do_ things without telling someone first while she was unencrypted.

Phasma dropped her helmet. "Dead?"

Satine patted her on the arm. "Don't take it so hard. You'll like the Resistance food better. Promise."

Luke covered his smile by turning his head to check on Rey and Jessika. 

Phasma narrowed her eyes at Poe. "I blame you, flyboy."

Luke did grin at that as Poe smiled at Phasma.

"If you don't want to become Resistance, we won't make you."

Phasma smiled grimly at Poe. "If you are going to incite a rebellion in my Troopers you've going to need better organization."

Luke could hardly wait for Phasma to meet Leia's organizational skills. He mentally winced at the thought of them teaming up to organize. Maybe it was a little too dangerous to let them near each other. He'd have to think about it when he had a free moment.

He caught Captain's Romi's elbow. "Come with me." He headed down the steps of the stage to Noilo and the rest of the children from Kaleine's platoon. "May I have that?"

Noilo held out the datasheet. "There are codes at the bottom I don't know."

Luke let Captain Romi look it over as Rey came from the door. "Padawan, would you please get Captain Phasma in a room with Poe and at least one other person to disarm her and get her out of her armor." As she nodded and started for the stage, Luke turned towards Captain Romi. "Do you have anything that would fit her?"

He nodded. "I'll have a set of underlayer blacks brought across from Phase Three storage." He leaned in. "We need to speak."

Luke nodded and leaned sideways enough to see Poe. "Poe, Rey's going to stick with Captain Phasma while she changes out of her armor."

Poe gave him a thumbs up and couched down to speak to Kaleine.

Luke gestured for Korro to come over as Finn took up position near Phasma. "Where would you like to speak, Captain?"

Romi led them down the hallway and into a small room with several consoles. He tapped a few buttons as he waved them towards seats. "The child couldn't read all the codes on the slip." He sat down heavily. "You must understand that there's nothing against an officer ordering their own children. The littles are birthed by the surrogate mothers that have been selected for their ability to withstand repeated pregnancies."

Luke nodded as he waited for Korro to settle down enough to sit. "I'm not going to judge, Captain."

He nodded. "All Stormtroopers are sent through a surgery at roughly fifteen or sixteen cycles. It depends a little on how fast they've gained height."

Luke made an encouraging noise as he kept an eye on Korro watching silently.

Captain Romi smoothed the datasheet out on the console. "They are told it is for removing frivolous organs and teeth that sometimes can cause problems unexpectedly, but it is also when, in the females, eggs are extracted from the ovaries. Drugs are given beforehand that force-mature some of the female's eggs."

He nodded because it made sense with the protocols Leia had read and then complained to him and Han about.

"She ran a straight batch. A single order for the whole batch, not just one child alone." He pointed at the coding at the bottom of the sheet. "It means most, if not all, of the Resistance squad are hers."

Luke sat back. "Can you check the other children's records?"

"No." Captain Romi pointed at another code on the sheet. "Classified run. Which means it is only on dataflim and we had a fire which..." He made a face.

"Right. She took steps to make sure no one would find out before she could make use of the resulting child that she was using the batch to get." Luke picked up the sheet. "I suppose you don't have a working genetic scanner, do you?"

"No. It broke several weeks before Finn and Commander Poe invited me to join your cause."

Korro leaned forward. "They all look different enough that they aren't all from the same father, are they?"

Captain Romi shook his head. "In a straight batch every father is different if the mother is the same. It is the other way around if the ordering officer is male."

"Could she have specified fathers?"

"Each specific father request would have upped the scrutiny into what she was requesting."

Luke swallowed. "She was implying Kaleine's father is Kylo Ren, Captain."

"Yes, I know. How she managed to get a sample from him to insert into the program is not within my knowledge. While it is not common First Order knowledge that Kylo Ren was once called another name with connections to the Resistance, I have read a lot recently."

He smiled grimly at that. "So has my sister with your protocol book. She requests you write down all the verbal only orders, please."

"Oh, I didn't even think about those. I'll list them out for the liaison if I'm not able to send them directly with you."

Luke inclined his head and started to rise. "Thank you, Captain."

Romi held out his hand to stop them. "One other thing, Master Skywalker."

"Yes?"

Romi pointed at a line on the sheet. "This means Kaleine is a twin."

Luke dropped back down. " _What?_ "

"Twins. They don't happen often and normally they are terminated if caught early enough. There's no deceased sibling code. They both survived their births."

****

Rey stuck to the wall as Phasma started to strip the outer layer of her armor. "I have a question."

Poe looked at her from where he was leaning against the door. "Yeah?"

Finn kept watching Phasma, but Rey could tell he was listening.

"Why are you louder now?" She eyed Phasma as Poe frowned at them.

Phasma glanced up as she unclipped her shin armor. "Louder? I've not been speaking."

Rey frowned. "No, I mean...When we were waiting on someone to hit their panic button your emotions weren't even noticeable. Now you're as loud as normal people. Why?"

Phasma stilled halfway through putting the shin armor into the growing pile on the chair beside her. "I assume the Resistance is smart enough to know not to try to take apart a Trooper's helmet?"

"They're boobytrapped, yeah, Phasma, we know that."

Finn frowned at Rey. "Wait, you can feel emotions from orbit?"

Rey frowned back. "Yes? Poe was panicking a little..."

Phasma grinned smugly at Poe.

"...and Finn was staying very quiet, but Korro was calm, which is why we kept waiting until Master Luke felt Satine." Rey tilted her head as she looked at Phasma. "You were panicking very quietly when Kaleine was telling you how bad your position was."

Poe grinned just as smugly back at Phasma.

Rey rolled her eyes. "Same side now, people. Get over yourselves." She pointed at Phasma. "Don't try to dodge the question."

Phasma sighed and went back to pulling off armor. "Satine comes up with slivers of crystals she inserts into certain Troopers' helmets. I have no idea where she gets or keeps them. I thought that might be what was in the box that Skim took from her room on the _Finalizer_."

Rey exchanged glances with Poe.

Finn frowned. "What good would crystals do, even if they were Satine's crystals?"

Phasma unclipped her thigh armor. "Do think it through, Finn."

Rey bit her lip as Poe straightened up.

"She is hiding people with it."

"Hmm." Phasma gestured towards her belt. "Am I unbuckling this or is someone else?"

Poe nodded towards Rey. "She'll get it."

Phasma sighed as Rey approached. "I don't know exactly how it works. I get a horrid headache from it and over time it becomes less effective." She gestured towards Finn. "Keeping his working was the worst. Satine complained constantly for three months before Jakku about Finn's helmet and keeping it on him because the more he took it off the better his body got at working around the crystal's effect."

"Is that why you were such a stickler about my keeping my helmet on?"

Phasma nodded as she pointed out a torso clip to Rey. "That one is next. Yes, you were safer in the helmet." She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. "I didn't single you out to make your life harder. You were the safest of my Troopers when it came to using someone as an example. No other officer could remember your designation before Jakku."

"What?"

Rey found the next clip on her own. "You made him your example Trooper because of the mindtrick that makes officers not notice him?"

"Partly." Phamsa aborted a reach for the next clip. "He should have been an Elite. Until the first time I spoke to Satine about it I didn't know why no one had elevated him. After that I also knew why he was so terrified of officers other than me, though he was never comfortable with me either."

Rey could see Finn holding himself back from asking so she poked at a clip under Phasma's arm to keep her attention off Finn. "Can Satine take it off him?"

"I don't think so, but you'd need to ask her to be certain. She didn't set it on him."

Poe frowned. "You just said..."

Phasma sighed. "I know what I said, flyboy. She didn't set it. Kept an eye on it so she could call Mara Jade, if we had to, yes, set it, no."

"Who is that?" Rey slipped the arm armor down Phasma's arm and off to go with the rest.

Poe tilted his head. "The lady in the holoprojector of Luke's that Phasma said was a C-unit."

Phasma nodded. "If you are going to trust I'm not going to kill you all in your sleep that means I need to answer your questions, even the ones you don't know enough to ask." Phasma held her hands out from her sides. "You need to remove the collar yourself, young Jedi. I have a knife in lining at the spine going down my back."

Rey carefully unfastened the collar and pulled it away to reveal the knife's hilt. "Where is she now?"

Phasma turned her head to look at Poe. "Well, flyboy? You think you're smart enough to know what I've been planning?"

Poe frowned and accepted the knife from Rey. "You don't know where she is."

Phasma smiled before looking at Rey. "Another knife under my left arm along the ribs. See the extra seam line for the channel?"

Rey nodded and gently pulled that knife loose as well. "Poe, why wouldn't she know?"

Finn took that knife from her. "What she doesn't know she can't give away around Kylo Ren, the Knights of Ren, or Supreme Leader Snoke."

Phasma waggled the fingers of one of her spread hands. "More or less. She's never spoken to me directly after that one time while I was in Pool."

"Did she ever tell Satine why she was around in the first place?"

Phasma looked over sharply before turning back to stare in front of herself. "You make up for your lack of organization in startling fashions, Commander Poe."

Rey frowned at Poe behind Phasma's back.

He gave her a little shrug and the finger flick he used on BB-8 to say in a minute.

She nodded and went back to checking Phasma for more weapons.

Poe rested his head back against the door he was still leaning against."Have you ever seen Master Qui-Gon Jinn's Force ghost?"

"Seen? No. I've heard him. Stupid talkative man."

Rey looked at Finn, who was staring at Phasma.

Poe stood up straight. "Stupid Glowy Man? Or Other Man?"

Phasma snorted and shook her head. "I call all three of them stupid."

Rey kept herself from glancing at either Poe or Finn through sheer force of will because she didn't know there were three Force ghosts since Han hadn't left the base.

"Well, Master Qui-Gon seems to have been under the impression you are one of my soldiers before you were ever born, so you tell me, Phasma, what do you know?"

Phasma turned her head slightly to look at Poe. "Jedi weren't allowed families."

Finn frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Poe held up his hand. "She'll get there. We're still in the trying to decide if we're going to work together stage, Finn. This is her making sure we're worth the trouble we're causing her."

Rey frowned as she stripped another knife from the small of Phasma's back. "What about the Jedi?"

"They weren't stupid about everything they did. You have to get new members from somewhere and children of Jedi tended to be more powerful. As their enemies gained power and numbers they needed to counter them. Not allowing families to have torn loyalties didn't mean they didn't make...arrangements."

"Satine said she's the last Nightsister."

Phasma nodded. "Satine is the last Nightsister born from a Jedi Knight father and a Nightsister mother. From what I gather the Jedi in question didn't know he'd been picked until close to his death. Jedi powers work on other Jedi after all."

Poe groaned. "Oh, kriff." He scrubbed his hands over his face. "Was is Kenobi?" He dropped his hands. "It was Kenobi, wasn't it?"

Rey watched Phasma flinch a little each time the name was said. "Satine is your mother."

Phasma lifted her chin just slightly.

Poe nodded. "Yeah, she is." He crossed his arms. "You would have made a good Jedi."

"That's not a much of a complement as you might think, flyboy."

Poe grinned wide. "Might be." He dropped the grin. "Are you comfortable changing with all of us in the room or would you rather it just be Rey?"

She frowned at him. "What?"

Rey poked her in the side. "He's trying to be polite. Normal people don't just strip down to skin in front of other people."

Phasma tilted her head to frown down at Rey. "I'm a prisoner so I understand the need to thoroughly search me."

"No."

She jerked her head back up to look at Poe. "What?"

Poe came closer and gently touched her shoulder. "You aren't a prisoner. We're disarming you more so you don't accidentally hurt someone when you become startled by something than anything else. Ele almost took off Snap's fingers one morning with a table knife when all he did was greet her from behind."

Phasma turned her head to look at Finn. "Seriously?"

He smiled as he nodded. "Yeah. They're going to ask you if you are hungry next."

"I could eat." She flexed her hands. "If I may?"

"Good ahead."

Phasma pulled her underarmor layer off and undid the binding for her breasts. "If we are being such good friends, what exactly did Satine have in that Trooper box?"

"Phasma, what happened to your back?"

She turned to look blankly at Poe.

"He's meaning your scars, Captain." Finn frowned at Poe. "She doesn't like to talk about them."

Rey took the clothes as Phasma stripped off the last pieces. "You don't have to answer, Phasma."

Phasma sighed as she held out her hand for the first of the new clothing. "Using a child against their parent is not exactly a groundbreaking interrogation technique." She looked at Rey and then at Poe. "You weren't wrong about my parentage. Very few within the Order know. The Supreme Leader gave up using me against her after they nearly devastated a planet in the resulting fight."

Rey held out the new shirt. "We won't tell anyone unless you say we can."

Phasma shook her head and turned towards Finn. "Do they really do things this way?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "Isn't it great?"

"I'm regretting joining this insanity already." She sighed and pulled the shirt from Rey's hand with a quick tug. "Tell whoever you want."

****

The beeping started back up. Mara rolled over and sat up.

"Already? You were just beeping _and_ you proceeded to tell me I'm still waiting. Still." She pressed the sequence to get the Code Six to spit out a status report. "And I'm talking to you like you can understand. Ugh."

She sighed as she waited. "Of course, given what Satine can manage when she's cornered I probably shouldn't rule out the possibility that you can understand me, you stupid machine." She stared at the readout. "Kriff me."

_Six Accepted. Feed Authenticated. Name?_

Mara took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "You had me bawling just days ago because you were asking me if I was still willing to wait, but now... _now_ you're..." She frowned and thumbed the reload button.

She paced as she waited for the Code Six to reboot. "Save this baby, Mara, it's important. Save that one, Mara, I don't want Snoke killing her. Wait here, it'll be fine, Mara. Two weeks tops, Mara. It'll work out, Mara. I promise she'll be fine, Mara."

She asked the Code Six for a new status report. "I'm going to figure out how to hit a Force ghost before I die and I'm going to punch a stupid glowing son of a bantha." She stared at the readout as she bent over the keyboard.

_Six Accepted. Feed Authenticated. Name?_

Mara very carefully typed in her full married name as she held the crystal necklace from Satine out of her way.

The Code Six beeped twice and offered her a file. Mara carefully transferred the file and opened it up to find a navigational chart.

" _Finally_." Mara smiled as she hit the button to wake up her ship. "I have a husband to go save."

****

Jessika Pava looked over Kaleine and her batch of little menaces. "You okay?"

Kaleine nodded. "We had to come. I told Poe we _had_ to come."

Noilo touched Kaleine's shoulder. "She had a bad memory replay."

Kaleine shrugged off his little hand. "In the day while I was walking down a corridor." She looked up at Jessika. "I nearly walked into a wall. It was _important_ we come."

She knelt down and gathered Kaleine up into a hug. "Hey, hey. I believe you. Poe believes you. It just scared us. You scared Poe and I'm betting you scared the Princess General too."

Jaydavi came over to stand behind Noilo. "You should have seen her telling us. She scared everyone."

Kaleine buried her head against Jessika's shoulder. "I didn't _want_ the other future. I wanted _this_ one."

Jess stood and took Kaleine up with her. She nudged Noilo with her hip. "Get everyone back onto the _Falcon_." She turned towards TA-175, Satine, and Jaydavi. "Go with the children, please."

The droid followed the platoon as they marched away. Satine pulled Jaydavi along by his sleeve at the rear of the group.

Jess settled on the stairs leading up to the stage with Kaleine in her lap. She looked out over the now empty assembly room. "Did Jaydavi pilot?"

Kaleine sniffed hard and dug her forehead into Jess' shoulder just a little. "Jaydavi and Ele. We left the rest there so they couldn't be grounded and leave the base without enough defense pilots. They kept watch on the base until the people we had to stun woke up."

She nodded and brushed Kaleine's hair down with her hand and she kept her other arm loosely looped around Kaleine's back. "That was good thinking. You had a Force vision?"

"A what?" Kaleine pulled back to look at Jess.

"Rey had one. Scared her pretty badly. Master Luke gets them once in awhile."

She blinked and wiped at her cheeks. "They have a proper name?"

"Yeah." Jess eased her into a better position to talk face-to-face. "You saw two possible futures?"

Kaleine frowned. "More than two. There was only one where we came."

"Okay." Jess tucked one of Kaleine's growing curls behind her tiny ear. "What happened in the other ones?"

Kaleine clenched her hands and hunched her shoulders.

She soothed a hand down Kaleine's back. "You came, kiddo. They won't happen, but you can tell me about them. I'm not going to yell or take your rations. Poe's busy or he'd be the one doing this, okay?"

"Yeah." Kaleine nodded. "He said he had to make sure she meant it when Captain Phasma said she knew who my father was." She lifted her head to look at Jess. "It is bad that I didn't care about parents until she mentioned it?"

"No, that's not bad." Jess cocked her head. "Kaleine."

"I know, I know." Kaleine licked her lips. "Most of them everyone died defending the base. In one the Princess General died because I couldn't stop _him_." She wrapped herself around Jess. "I failed and _failed_ and everyone died."

"Shh." Jess rocked them a little to try to ease Kaleine's distress. "What about this one? The one where you came."

Kaleine sat up and glanced between the floor and Jess several times before swallowing. "I came and everyone lived. I said a name I've never heard before at the right time and..." She frowned. "Something impossible happened and everyone important lived and the Supreme Leader died."

"Something impossible?"

Kaleine shook her head. "I almost didn't try because impossible things mean it can't be the right future, but then I remembered that since we ran away to Poe I've seen lots of things I considered impossible."

Jess nodded. "What was the impossible thing?"

Kaleine shook her head again. "Do you think Master Luke was scared? He didn't seem scared."

She let it go because forcing the issue wouldn't help. "Yeah, he was terrified for a few minutes there. You more or less went straight up to a very dangerous person and poked them with a verbal stick. You understand how dangerous that was?"

Kaleine shook her head. "She wasn't going to hurt anyone."

"And how did you know that?" Jess narrowed her eyes at Kaleine. "Other than a Force vision."

She bit her lip. "She was waiting for the trap."

"What?"

"She thought Poe had her in a trap, not the other way around. She was stalling."

Jess bit her lips to keep from laughing. She smiled at Kaleine. "That, while totally awesome, still meant you walked up to her and _poked_ her."

Kaleine shrugged. "It works." She frowned. "I don't want to tell you the impossible thing because I don't want to know if I was wrong and now everyone will die. Is that okay?"

"Oh, kiddo." Jess tucked her up into a tight hug. "That's perfectly fine. The one where you came everyone lived and I promise you that everyone is going to try their hardest to live, you know that, right?"

"Yeah."

Jess sighed. "Yeah." She stood up with Kaleine still in her arms. "We are totally going shopping before we go home to get grounded by the Princess General." They needed a genetic scanner.

****

Karé Kun sighed as she knocked on the door of the safe information agent's home.

Kes Dameron opened the door and looked her up and down. "Moved the base on you, did they?"

She nodded. "You were the closest safe drop. Comms got shot up so I can't just call in. I know we had to have moved because I heard about Starkiller."

"Hmm." He held the door open to let her in. "She have you running around the elbow of the galaxy?"

"More or less." Karé frowned as she stepped inside because Kes was picking up a box.

He shoved the box at her. "Here."

"What?"

Kes waggled the box and she could hear something shifting inside. "Get it to Poe, please. I've been pulling them off the tree for a couple of days now. Didn't touch any bare handed. Last the boy knew it was just blooming."

She took the box gingerly. "Okay. What tree?"

He dug around in a drawer and came up with a datareader. He looked at her as a he printed a sheet of dataflim. "Out back. His mother and I planted it when she came back from a mission once. It grew fine, hasn't ever bloomed until now."

Karé looked down at the closed box. "Feels heavier than just blooms."

Kes chuckled and held the dataflim out to her. "Here you go, kid. Tell my boy I'm proud of him and when he gets a break from saving the galaxy he should bring his partners and come visit."

"Partners?" She took the dataflim and shifted the box into a better hold. "Last I knew Poe wasn't serious with anyone."

Kes smiled. "He gushed about them the last time I called. I could hardly get a word in edgewise to let him know about the blooming."

"Why is the blooming important?"

"My wife promised Luke Skywalker she'd let him know if it ever bloomed."

"Oh." She blinked. "I'll...tell Poe what you said."

Kes clapped her on the shoulder and showed her out.

Standing on his doorstep, Karé frowned down at the box and shook her head as she hurried to get back to her ship. She needed to report to the General.

****

Leia watched the _Falcon_ land with Han standing at her shoulder.

"Hey, they didn't even scratch the paint, Leia."

She closed her eyes for a moment. "Don't make me laugh when I'm going for angry, dear."

He chuckled as the ramp lowered.

Luke came down the ramp carrying Kaleine.

Leia frowned as he came closer. He was more closed down than she'd felt him since he'd had returned to them. "Luke?"

He nodded to Han and shifted Kaleine up a little as he stopped in front of her. "Everyone here alright?"

Leia raised her eyebrows and nodded towards Kaleine clinging to Luke. "Yes. We had a few people with stun headaches and one broken nose from landing on their face. Everyone that was stunned was left in the proper recovery position for their species."

Luke shook his head slightly and motioned back towards the _Falcon_ as the freighter came in to land just outside the line denoting the blast doors. "She had a Force vision."

"Aww, poor kid."

Leia frowned at Han and stepped forward to laid her hand alongside Luke's on Kaleine's back. "You scared my base, young lady."

Kaleine turned and lunged towards Leia. It took both Luke and her to keep Kaleine from falling to the ground. "I _had_ to go. I'm sorry!"

Leia shifted her with Luke's help and got her settled against Leia's side. "Alright. You'll get to explain, Kaleine." She looked at Luke. "Has she eaten?"

He shook his head. "She's been refusing." He jerked a thumb towards the freighter. "Also, we brought home another few strays."

"I told you, Leia, you send Dameron you get a new recruit."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Han, you told me that when you were convincing me to take him on his first recruitment mission."

He spread his faintly glowing hands. "Still applies."

She sighed and frowned down at the top of Kaleine's head. "Aren't you hungry, Kaleine?"

"No."

Even without the Force, Leia would have known she was lying. She rocked side to side in a pattern she'd used to sooth Ben when he had been younger than Kaleine. "How many did we get this time?"

"Seven, if you count Captain Phasma."

Leia blinked several times. "Luke."

He shrugged as he turned to watch the freighter's hatch open. "Oh, it gets better."

Satine appeared from the freighter.

Leia smiled as Satine came towards them. "Hello, Satine."

"Hello, Princess General. Thank you for letting us stay with the Resistance." She ran her hand over the top of Kaleine's head. "You need to eat, Kaleine. Snap is eating your favorite so I'm sure there will be enough for you when we get to the dinning hall. The cook has been worrying about you. Come here."

Leia was just stunned enough to let Satine pull Kaleine from her arms without a protest. She stared after them as they disappeared down the main corridor. She turned on her brother. "What the kriffing hell was _that_?"

Poe stopped next to them and gestured towards the corridor. "I take it Satine went through?"

Leia turned to stare at him.

Han shifted close enough to make Leia's back tingle. "I thought she was nuttier than a Hutt."

Poe glanced at Han and then looked back at her. "Turns out that there is such a thing as an Encryption Trooper. Satine currently can't remember how to do a single thing concerning Code Sixes."

"Who is the Encryption Trooper?" Leia frowned as Luke made the same expression he used to tell her news she didn't want to hear. "Oh, don't tell me it's Captain Phasma."

Poe grimaced. "It gets better?"

Leia frowned harder as Han snickered behind her. "I doubt it greatly, Dameron."

****

Dr. Kalonia stared at Captain Phasma's back for a moment before pulling the woman's shirt back down. "Do the scars ever burn or hurt or tingle or bother you in any way?"

Phasma frowned at her. "Is that important?"

Kalonia dropped to sit across from Phasma as BB-8 kept peeking in the nearly closed door. "BB-8, you are not a medical driod no matter the amount of information you downloaded while Finn was in his coma. Wait in the hallway."

Phasma snorted as the droid disappeared. "I wasn't bothered by the droid."

"Well, I was." Kalonia frowned at her. "Scars? Any pain?"

Phasma shook her head. "Nothing I would report."

"Yeah, that figures." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "I've been filled in on what you are claiming about Kaleine. Currently, I can't run genetic testing. I've blood typed everyone and nearly all of Kaleine's platoon and Cerri either match your type or could be your child."

Phasma gazed at her. "Your point, Doctor?"

"While I have it on good authority you aren't lying, I want you to know that if you have intentions to hurt any of the children I will reopen every scar on your back clear to the bone."

Phasma smiled and nodded once. "An admirable threat, Doctor. I will endeavour not to hurt them."

With a short sigh, Kalonia went back to the exam.

****

Leia lay on top of her bed with Han along one side and Luke sitting up against the headboard on the other side. The longer they talked the more she could tell how much Luke was clamping down on his own emotions. "I thought you couldn't feel Mara."

"I haven't been able to feel her in years. I thought she...left me." Luke looked down at them. "She was pregnant?"

"Maybe." Han frowned up at Luke. "I couldn't be sure. I figured if she was you'd have said eventually and if she wasn't...then it was better that I didn't get your hopes up." He grimaced.

Luke nodded. "Yeah. She was moving around the First Order when Phasma was still in the Enlistment Pool."

Leia exchanged glances with Han. "Are you sure you can believe Phasma, Luke?"

"Captain Romi helped me get Phasma's helmet open." He reached into his robes and pulled out a tiny bundle. "There were slivers of kyber crystal woven into the wiring."

Han blinked. "The lightsaber crystal?"

"These are too small for sabers, but they are attuned. See? Color."

Leia craned her neck to look at the tiny crystals in Luke's hand. "Not attuned to you though."

"No." Luke blew out a breath. "Mara. They are attuned to Mara. She's been helping hide the Force sensitives in the Stormtroopers."

"What?" Han sat up and frowned down at the tiny slivers. "Finn."

"Yes, I talked to him on the way back about his headaches and Phasma."

"You think we can trust her?"

Luke tucked the crystal slivers away. "We can trust that she cares about her Troopers and hates Snoke. Whether she's really Obi-Wan's granddaughter remains to be seen."

Han sputtered. "What? When did _that_ happen? _How_ did that happen?"

Leia snorted. "Well, Han, when two people..."

He swatted at her. "Shush, you." He waggled a finger at Luke. "Talk, you."

With a smile, Luke shifted to lay down next to Leia. "I asked Master Yoda once how the Jedi got new members if they didn't have families. He made me stand on my head while I levitated some rocks and R2. He never did answer me."

"Luke."

He shook his head. "I asked Ben, Old Ben, about the Jedi as soon as he admitted to it. I pestered him about the lightsaber, and back then I didn't know, so I asked him about Father too. He sounded wistful, he sounded like he missed the Jedi Order, that Father was a great Jedi, but..." Luke waved around his hand until Leia caught it.

She rolled to face him. "Go on, Luke."

"He was furious." Luke frowned. "I didn't realize until later, but I've always felt emotions. I'd always put it down to my being...weird. Anyway, he was furious and after I found out about Father being Vader I thought it was that, but thinking back on it now..." He rolled a little towards Leia and focused on Han at her back. "I think he was mad at Yoda."

She squeezed his hand. "Why Yoda?"

Luke bit his lip. "He was the Grandmaster of the Jedi. His was the final word on decisions concerning the Order and if they were trading children with the Nightsisters he would have known. Phasma implied they just mindtricked Ben into forgetting."

Han rolled off the bed and started to pace. "I never did like Yoda."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Han, you never met him."

Han shrugged. "Still."

Leia patted Luke's hand. "Satine?"

"She was a Nightsister until Master Qui-Gon Jinn took her from them in the middle of the night and hid her with a mid-ranking family with close ties to the families that would become the high-rank Imperial supporters. She went into the Signal Crops and the part that I'm still wrapping my head around is that while he was Vader, Father moved her as far from the Emperor's view as he could get her. She went into the Sanctuary Pipeline with the Imperial fleet that fled after we defeated the Emperor."

"From there she ended up with the First Order."

"Yes." Luke frowned. "Why did he hide her from the Emperor?"

"Maybe the same reason he didn't come kill you as a baby?"

Luke stared across Leia to Han. "What?"

Leia turned towards Han and frowned. "What?"

Han made a face and spread his hands. "Yeah, so, uhm, there's perks to the whole glowing thing." He sat on the edge of the bed. "I been talking to ghosts that come check on their people while we waited for you to get back. I ended up talking to a guy that died during the Battle of Naboo. Sounded stuffy as a Jedi, but he wouldn't tell me his name, right? He made a comment about how much Leia looked like her mom."

Leia sucked in a breath.

Han waved his hand. "Yeah, I know. We talked about it, it verged off into how she died, and he went on and on about how if someone had just listened to Anakin's Force visions and _why_ it made him so mad instead of just telling him to quit being angry the whole history of the Empire would have changed."

Luke sat up and helped Leia sit up as well.

Leia frowned at Han. "What's your point?"

"Jedi powers work on Jedi." Han sighed. "How'd the Clone Wars droid know where to be? And why would Mara be leaving Luke's first lightsaber with Maz? Why did Phasma lower the shields at Starkiller Base? Satine can knock a Jedi Master on his ass, but she can't smuggle herself out of the First Order? What is all that taken together other than someone's grand plan?"

"I've been wondering about the shields. The only thing Phasma needed to do was refuse to cooperate and we would have all died." Leia started tucking her hair up.

Han nodded. "She put up a token protest and then just rolled right over. At the time I was more worried about getting the mission done. I figured I'd have time to worry about it later."

Luke leaned forward and rubbed his left hand over his face. "Force visions."

Leia finished tucking her hair into place and frowned at her brother. "What?"

He shook his head and flopped back down on the bed. "I had a Force vision that I followed to Ahch-To. Rey had one that gets her and Finn my old lightsaber. Kaleine had one and it causes Phasma to end up stuck with us."

Leia frowned at Han as he frowned back. She turned towards Luke and looked down at him. "You think someone gave you the vision?"

Luke sighed. "Want to bet me that when we finally get to talk to Mara, she's going to say a Force vision sent her away from me?"

"I don't bet you, kid. I learned my lesson on that." Han scooted up the bed to sit against the headboard. "How bad was Kaleine's vision? She was letting you carry her, Luke."

He rolled onto his side towards them. "Jessika told me she saw a future where everyone, including Leia, died if she had stayed here. The one where she did go everyone important lived and Snoke died." He eyed Leia. "You really understated Jess, by the way."

Leia grinned and smoothed out the wrinkles she'd put into her clothing by laying down. "You deserved it, Jedi Prince."

"Maybe." Luke frowned down at his right hand. "Kaleine's been constantly hiding everyone since the moment Phasma implied she's Ben's child. She getting better at blending it into the Force that's already present. If I wasn't inside her range I'm not sure I could find our base right now."

"Huh. Is that why all the ghosts except that one kid Stormtrooper have disappeared?"

Luke narrowed his eyes at Han. "Kid Stormtrooper?"

Leia grimaced. "I have seen him once as well. From what I understand he was part of Kaleine's platoon. He killed himself and that caused Kaleine to decide she was getting the rest of them out."

Han wrinkled his nose. "They can't be more than ten years old, Leia."

"I know, dear." She rubbed circles on Luke's back. "I know it scares you, but you are going to have to train her."

He blinked hard and after a few moments he nodded. "I've started working with Finn and Rey. I'll see if Satine is willing to help. Teaching Kaleine how to knock Ben over might help her terror about him."

Han cocked his head. "I wonder if that terror is a mindtrick too."

Leia cupped Han's shoulder and touched Luke's side. "I'm going to talk to Phasma. Work out a plan to settle Kaleine down while I'm gone."

****

Zeroes peered under his bunk. "You can't stay under there forever."

"Might." Kaleine rubbed the tip of her nose. "I went to the fresher before I crawled under here. I can stay a long time yet."

Zeroes sat down on the floor and leaned back against his bunk. He dropped one hand down to the floor and waited until she slipped her little hand into his palm. "Satine said to come sit with you. She said you didn't eat much."

"I'm not hungry."

He frowned as her stomach rumbled loud enough for both of them to hear. "I wanted to be a C-unit when I was your height."

She shifted her fingers against his skin. "Really?"

"Yes." He changed his position so he could cup her hand more securely. "I went so far as to throw a test score to try to put myself in the right range to be picked for a C-unit. Didn't work, of course. I figured out I can't control anyone else. I can only control me."

Kaleine sniffed and wiggled out enough to frown up at him. "I don't understand."

He brushed her hair back like he'd seen the Resistance adults do. "Finn said you're afraid of Kylo Ren and that's why you aren't eating or sleeping since Captain Phasma told you he might be your father. You're busy hiding everyone so he can't find you."

She nodded. "Can't find any of us if I keep everyone hidden."

Zeroes ran his thumb over her cheek where he hoped she'd never gain a scar like his. "I've seen him terrified."

Kaleine blinked and her fingers dug into his hand. "What?"

"Yeah, the Supreme Leader was displeased with him for taking Rey instead of continuing his mission until he had BB-8. Kylo Ren was terrified of the Supreme Leader."

"How could you tell?"

"He does this breathing thing. He hunches his shoulders and breathes heavy for a couple of beats before lifting his chin."

She frowned up at him.

Zeroes touched the tip of her nose. "You can't control him, Kaleine, so why are you letting him control you?"

Kaleine blinked as she rubbed the tip of her nose. "He isn't...Oh." She frowned. "You mean I shouldn't be afraid of him?"

"I mean you shouldn't let your fear dictate your actions. He is scary. I'm scared of him. I've seen him stop blaster bolts mid-air."

She pulled herself the rest of the way out from under his bunk. "That's not that hard. They are just fast, but they are loud. It's easier to deflect them than stop them completely. They like to move."

Zeroes let her lean against his side. "Then why are you so afraid of him? I'm pretty sure he can't do the hiding thing you can do."

She shook her head and frowned up at him. "He's an adult. I'm just...me." She waved her hand over her head. "Short."

Zeroes pulled her in against him. "Short just means you go for his legs or his groin. Ankles. It would be hard to chase you if he can't walk." He smiled at her quickly cut off giggle. "He'll underestimate you because you are under-height. Always use your advantages."

Kaleine wrapped an arm around his back. "I have to protect my squa...platoon. Poe said to call them a platoon."

"Protecting them means you have to be able to do so. Exhaustion is a last resort, Kaleine."

She nodded. "I don't have anyone that I can trade off with. I need to teach Master Luke how to hide us."

Zeroes followed her as she pushed herself up and headed for the door. "That's not exactly what I meant."

****

Phasma stared at the names on the wall. She paced sideways and looked over more names mixed in with Stormtrooper designations. "Why?"

Commander Poe was leaning against the wall near the end of the list. "They are all our dead. This is how we remember them."

Phasma traced a designation. "All your dead."

"All _our_ dead." He nodded towards her. "Rey's right that we're going to have to work together if we're going to save your Troopers."

She blinked. "You need to modify your list."

"Oh?"

Phasma tapped several designations. "I've been siphoning off resources."

He grinned. "You've been faking deaths?"

"A few at a time. Anywhere they wouldn't be noticed and could be killed by their own mistakes if possible."

"Can't blame others if they did something that resulted in their own death, is that it?"

"Yes. I only moved the ones required to be out of the Order's purview. It is easier on resources to maintain them in place whenever possible." Phasma turned toward the corridor junction as footsteps echoed.

Poe shifted off the wall as the General herself stepped around the corner.

"General."

"Poe." She smiled and touched his elbow as she nodded towards Phasma. "I'd like to talk to our guest."

He waved at her. "She was just telling me that we're going to need to scrub some names from the Memorial wall for not being as dead as we thought."

The General looked at Phasma and nodded. "That is good to hear." She gestured towards the far end of the corridor. "Please, walk with me, Captain."

Phasma frowned, but fell in and shortened her stride to match the General's stride length as they walked.

Behind them trailed several adults and four of Kaleine's squad at a distance.

The General came to a door and motioned for Phasma to wait as she turned towards her guards. "Wait here, please." She opened the door and walked through before turning towards Phasma. "Come along, Captain."

Phasma slipped through and froze at the amount of plants growing as the General closed the door behind them. Phasma stepped forward and gingerly touched a vine growing up a wire.

"You are welcome to come here whenever you would like."

With a snort, Phasma turned towards the General. "Why do you all continue to talk as though I have a choice in the matter?"

The General raised her eyebrows and turned down one of the rows to walk along the plants. "It might be because you have choices here." She settled on a bench and gestured to the bench across the walkway. "Please, sit."

Phasma sat and waited as the General watched her.

"Why did you walk into the freighter, Captain?"

She blinked. "What?"

"You knew it had to be a trap, so why go in on your own?"

Phasma frowned. "The Resistance had...has most everything I need to overthrow the Supreme Leader."

The General frowned. "You can't have decided to overthrow him because of four Troopers he killed needlessly and being used against your own mother."

"It hasn't been just four Troopers. I've watched and listened to death for far too long. The Elites were simply the point at which I became certain Kylo Ren would side with me if he had enough incentive to do so."

The General pulled something from a pocket and held it out towards her.

Phasma took it and turned it over to find it was a brush. "What is this for?"

"This is the only thing I have from my birth mother. I don't even know her name because my parents would never talk about her and the only person I could ask is a Force ghost I don't want to speak to."

She felt along the bristles and looked at the General.

"I'd like you to carry it. Use it if you like. All I ask is that you not lose it."

Phasma frowned down at the brush. "Why are you loaning me something of such personal value?"

"You lowered the shields on Starkiller Base without much of a fight, is that right?"

"Yes." Phasma glanced up at her. "It was just a larger Death Star in a sense and I knew that you know how to destroy those. The loss of life there was far less than if Starkiller had been allowed to operate unchecked."

"That's why."

"That makes no sense." Phasma stood and paced along the plants several feet before turning and coming back. "Explain what you mean."

"You trusted that my people could finish a job you weren't in a position to do yourself." She pointed to the brush. "This is me returning that trust."

Phasma cradled the brush in her hands and sat back down on the bench across from the General. "You think I'm worthy of your trust?"

"I know you are."

It was like the air had become too thick to breathe. Phasma stared down at the brush. "Sometimes they talk about your mother." She glanced at the General. "The Jedi Prince calls them Force ghosts." She held the brush back out to the General. "Her name was Padmé. I don't need your brush to see your trust, General."

She accepted back the brush. "You can call me Leia, Captain."

Phasma blinked and then inclined her head. "Thank you...Leia. Using my rank isn't a requirement."

Leia smiled. "Alright." She tucked the brush away. "How close are you to open rebellion?"

"I have sixteen percent of all the living Stormtroopers certain to side with me. Counting those that are Resistance now." Phasma shifted her weight. "I was hoping to get over two billion before we moved."

Leia blew out a breath and leaned back. "How many living Stormtroopers are there? I've only seen the numbers for a single Academy."

"We hover at slightly under twelve billion. That counts the Troopers nearing the end of their life cycles and all the officers as well."

Leia rubbed her cheek. "And to think I've got just over two thousand active Resistance fighters." She smiled at Phasma. "That is counting the ex-Stormtroopers and former TIE pilots."

Phasma sputtered. "That's less than the crew of the _Finalizer_." She looked around the room at all the plants. "How do you mange _anything_?"

"By doing what is right." Leia patted the pocket with her brush in it. "I'm sure when Poe asked that you answered because you thought you had no choice, but knowing you have a choice and that I will let you go if you decide to leave...Phasma, how do you feel about joining the Resistance?"

Phasma smiled. "Well, you do have the better food." She held out her hand. "How does the Resistance feel about joining a rebellion?"

Leia smiled wide as she clasped hands with Phasma. "It feels like coming home." She bit her lip. "Just don't tell the Jedi Prince I said that."

****


End file.
